The Bulgarian short track skater Evgenia Radanova successfully passed the first round of the competition in 500m heats, at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Bulgarian media reported on February 14 2010.

Radanova won the last series of eight, finishing with 45.125 sec and assured herself further contention in the tournament along with French skater Veronique Pierron.

The Bulgarian and French skaters were expecting to meet "tough opposition" in the face of Chinese skater Zhao Nannan but she tumbled in the middle of the run and did not finish the race. Following the Chinese's blunder, the referees carefully assessed the circumstances surrounding her fall, but ruled that the Bulgarian skater had not been a cause of it and her victory stood.

The other Bulgarian skater, Marina Georgieva, failed the psychological test however and has been subsequently disqualified from the competition. Georgivea, who was supposed to compete in the seventh series, committed two foul starts and was given her marching orders.

The other ladies who qualified from the 500 heats are Katherine Reutter from the US, Ha Ri Cho from South Korea, Marianne St Gelais from Canada, Sarah Lindsey from the UK, Meng Wang from China, Katerina Novotna from the Czech Republic, Eun-Byul Lee from South Korea, Jessica Gregg from Canada, Ariana Fontana from Italy, Alyson Dudek from the US, Yang Zhou from China, Kalyna Roberge from Canada, Seung Hi Park from South Korea, and Elise Christie from the UK